Exposure of C6 glial cell cultures to desipramine induced the appearance of opioid receptors and up-regulated sigma receptors. Opioid binding was demonstrated with 3H-etorphine and 3H-dihydromorphine (DHM), but was not observed with the mu, delta and kappa ligands 3H-DAMGE, 3H-DADLE or 3H-(-)ethylketocyclazocine in the presence of specific blockers, respectively. Competition experiments with 3H-DHM and either (-)naloxone or (+)naloxone indicated the presence of authentic opioid receptors. In similar studies with beta-endorphin, its truncated form (1-27) or their N-acetyl derivatives, beta-endorphin proved to have the highest affinity. Opioid receptors in glial cell aggregates were primarily kappa, with few mu and delta sites. Desipramine increased Bmax values for kappa but not mu and delta.

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How surgeon age affects posttreatment surveillance strategies for upper aerodigestive tract cancer patients.

PURPOSE: Strategies for the surveillance of patients with upper aerodigestive tract (UADT) epidermoid cancer after potentially curative treatment are not uniform, and the most suitable regimen remains unknown. We investigated the effect of surgeon age on follow-up strategy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The 824 members of the Society of Head and Neck Surgeons (SHNS) and the 522 members of the American Society for Head and Neck Surgery (ASHNS) who were not members of the SHNS were surveyed using a custom-designed questionnaire to measure how these surgical experts performed follow-up on patients with UADT cancer. Subjects were asked how often they used 14 specific follow-up modalities for patients with resectable UADT cancer during years 1 to 5 after potentially curative primary treatment. Repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to compare practice patterns by surgeon age, as well as by tumor, node, metastasis (TNM) stage and year postsurgery. RESULTS: Responses from 199 SHNS members (24%) and 221 ASHNS members (42%) were considered assessable. Strategies were highly correlated across TNM stages and years postsurgery for most of the 14 modalities. Mean follow-up intensity differed significantly by surgeon age only for bone scan and liver function tests. Although statistically significant, the differences in surveillance strategies among age groups were clinically small. CONCLUSION: Surveillance practice patterns of surgeons caring for patients after treatment for UADT cancer do not vary substantially with practitioner age. Postgraduate education is a plausible mechanism for this homogenization of practitioner behavior.

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Long-term outcome following testicular ischemia in the rat.

Male germ cells are quite sensitive to interruption in blood flow. Eight weeks after subjection to 45 minutes of testicular ischemia, the spermatogenic epithelium of the rat remains significantly damaged, though other cell types are well preserved. The authors evaluated the testicular recovery of the rats at 8 and 72 weeks after the 45-minute period of warm ischemia. Twenty-eight rats were studied: 14 underwent 45 minutes of total left testicular ischemia; 14 received no treatment. Four rats from each group were necropsied at 8 weeks to document the ischemic injury. At 72 weeks, the 18 surviving rats were necropsied to evaluate the long-term outcome of the treatment. At 8 weeks, significant left testicular injury was documented. However, at 72 weeks there was no difference in testicular weight or sperm head count between the groups: in all 36 testicles, the repopulation index was 1.00, the epididymal index was 3+, the modified Johnsen index was 14, and the spermatic cord score was 7 (all are maximum obtainable scores). Neither contralateral orchiopathy nor injury to spermatic cord structures was observed. Our work shows that ischemia-induced testicular injury is fully reversible with time in this model.

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